No Vote

No Vote Yet?

Yesterday was the first Tuesday in November, the traditional major fall election day. With the furious campaigning for President of These United States in the weeks and months leading up to Tuesday 3 November 2015... Oh. Wait.

It's just the off-year election after the mid-term election. We've still got a WHOLE YEAR of Presidential campaigning left.

Sigh.

No Vote?

So with election day rolling in, I couldn't remember hardly seeing ANY campaign signs anywhere, especially in Allendale, nor could I remember any Ottawa County or Michigan ballot proposals. So Monday night I checked, Googling "allendale mi ballot". The first hit was an Ottawa County site with several townships and other jurisdictions in the county -- but no mention for Allendale Twp. The Allendale Township site had a page for announcements -- and it was blank. Another website showed nothing for Allendale.

Would it kill the county or the township to put up a notice that there was NO Allendale Township election this round?

I did go down 84th Avenue in the morning and braved turning onto the M-45 traffic without benefit of a traffic light, so I could drive by the big church complex where elections are held -- no sign at the road saying VOTE TODAY.

Okay. Well, that's easy.

No! Vote

I don't normally delve into politics on this blog... but this hit the national news.

In case you need context, Cindy Gamrat (R) and Todd Courser (R), managed to merge their offices in Lansing "to save money". Actually, though both married to other people, they used their shiny new combined office to cover their affair. It was eventually exposed, in part because the staff members refused to be part of the coverup. Courser thought he could put the dogs off the scent by producing a fake email smear campaign, outing him as gay -- apparently a fate worth than death or adultery.

In case you think this is only about the sex, remember they spent government money in order to conduct their affair. It was, apparently, a "mistake".

Rather than resign and let the State Legislature work on stuff like a third Real Try at funding desperately needed road repairs, they insisted on staying put until weeks of investigations and hand wringing and a vote late into the night resulted in... Gamrat being expelled from the State House and her brave suiter, Courser, bravely deciding to resign just before he was voted out as well.

Then this past week, Gamrat decided that since the voters hadn't weighed in on this, she was going to run for her seat in the special election. It is apparently legal to do so. But previously the Allegan County Republican Party had expelled her as well. Then Courser announced he was going to do the same -- run in the special election -- after getting approval (this time) from his wife.

Well, the results are in and neither Courser nor his girlfriend-not-his-wife will be going back to the legislature:

Gamrat came in third of eight candidates for the Republican special election primary, netting 9% of the vote. And in an 11 horse Kentucky Derby, Courser came in sixth with 4% of the vote. Thank goodness.

I was very peeved at both of these idiots, first for trying to use a "joint legislative office" to cover for their affair, second for Courser's idiotic plan to try to accuse himself of being gay, which he figured could be disproved, so when the rumors of the affair spread, no one would believe him. Third for not resigning when this all first blew up, because as God fearing good people and hardcore Tea Party Republicans, they couldn't imagine they did anything wrong. Thus forcing weeks of investigations, hearings and finally a long into the night vote, where the legislature expelled Gamrat and then Courser bravely let his girlfriend swing in the wind alone and resigned before he could be expelled, too. Which finally resulted in the two deciding that they should let their voters decide whether they should go back to their elected jobs as if nothing happened.

At her concession announcement at her home, Gamrat had her family on video call... from Florida. Right...